If you ever doubted the quality of the information and advice you get here at Windows7News, doubt no more. I’m delighted to be able to announce that my troubleshooting and tutorial videos for Windows will soon be appearing on the official Microsoft help and support website.

The first five videos to appear cover using the automated troubleshooters, the extremely well hidden system file checker, how to get started with the event viewer, how  to use Windows Startup Repair and finally how you can manually repair corrupt boot files for Windows 7.

These are only the start as Microsoft have asked me to submit more tutorial videos and I’m only too happy to help, so you can expect to see many more appearing in the coming months.

The videos, which can also be viewed below, will appear on support.microsoft.com under the Windows 7 section and come about after the publication last year of my first Microsoft Press book Troublehsooting Windows 7 Inside Out.

http://youtu.be/UDKdM4ulBMs?hd=1

Win7News Editor’s Videos to be Added to Official Microsoft Support Website was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Yesterday Mike put together quite a convincing argument against all theWindows 8 Leaks that have found there way to the web over the last couple of weeks. He was quite clearly against them all, and had several well thought out points to back himself up. As he also pointed out in his post, I’ve got the pleasurable task of countering his argument and to convince you all otherwise.

So without further ado, here’s why I’m in favor of the leaks of images, information and screenshots of Windows 8.

Click here to read the rest on Windows 8 News

Windows 8 Leaks: The Argument For was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Project Emporia is a very interesting idea.  WMPowerUser first reported about this Microsoft Research app that aggregates interesting news for you from around the world.

The program makes the process of finding news stories less taxing by bringing together all types of news from world news, technology, science and nature, health and politics into an easy to use interface.

While there are still a few very minor bugs left in the system you can download Project Emporia now from the Windows Phone Marketplace.  It uses the metro UI so you get a lovely left-right panning and swooping effect when switching between panels, each of which will cover a different news subject.

You can also zoom into a panel to see the news stories there in more detail.  Project Emporia is an excellent Windows Phone app and I’d recommend that you give it a try.

Project Emporia for Windows Phone was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft has just released the final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011, an update for the popular Windows Live Essentials suite of downloadable Windows applications. The suite is a free download from Microsoft, compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The final version follows several beta versions that have been released since June of this year, following in the footsteps of the large, successful public betas that Microsoft has conducted for Windows 7, Office 2010, and most recently Internet Explorer 9. Like IE9, the suite also drops support for Windows XP, an increasingly common trend.

The programs available in Live Essentials 2011 are largely just updated versions of those available in previous versions of the package. Here they are, in brief:

Messenger, an IM client that also features social networking integration.

Photo Gallery, a photo organizer and simple photo editor.

Movie Maker, a basic but easy-to-use program for editing and publishing movies.

Mail, a fairly straightforward email client.

Writer, a blogging program, and my personal favorite program in the whole suite. Seriously, why can’t anyone else get this right?

The more minor components of the suite include parental controls, a Bing toolbar, and Microsoft Silverlight, among others.

You can download the new version of the suite from download.live.com, or as an optional update from Microsoft Update.

Source: PC World, Microsoft

Windows Live Essentials 2011 released was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Volume 8 of Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report (SIR) was released recently, and it unsurprisingly concludes that Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP2 are more secure and resistant to infection than is Windows XP SP3.

According to the report, the 32-bit version of Windows 7 RTM and the 32-bit version of Windows Vista SP2 sport infection rates of 2.2 and 2.8, respectively, which both compare quite favorably to Windows XP SP3′s infection rate of 7.0. These infection rates are calculated by Microsoft using data collected by the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which is run on Windows Update-enabled computers every month, and are measured in number of computers infected per 1,000 computers. See the graph below for a complete breakdown.

A list of operating system infection rates from Volume 8 of Microsoft's Security Intelligence Report.

The 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP2 fare even better, with only 1.4 computers infected per every 1,000 computers scanned. Microsoft chalks this up to beefier security in the 64-bit versions of Windows, but also concedes that 64-bit computers are still often run by more tech-savvy users who are better able to keep their systems free of infection.

So what do these numbers mean? For Joe Consumer, they mean that Microsoft is still very interested in selling you a copy of Windows 7 (or even a new computer) to replace your aging and oh-so-insecure copy of XP. It also emphasizes the extent to which Windows Vista and Windows 7 are similar under the hood – most of the security improvements in 7 are also present in Vista.

The numbers are slightly more meaningful for businesses, who often need to quantify things before they can do something as major operating system upgrade. IT guys can take these numbers to their higher-ups to demonstrate one of the benefits of upgrading to Windows 7 as opposed to staying with XP for another year.

All in all, though, there’s nothing here that should surprise anyone. More up-to-date products are more secure than older versions. Microsoft wants you to buy Windows 7. Windows Vista isn’t as bad as its reputation would have you believe. Business as usual, really.

The Security Intelligence Report, which covers the months of July through December of 2009, can be read here. It is compiled using data from over 500 million Windows computers and other Microsoft services such as Hotmail and Bing.

Sources: Microsoft, Softpedia

Microsoft Says Windows 7 more secure than Windows XP, No One Surprised was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Hard drive manufacturers are set to improve the speed, capacity, and power consumption of their drives by 2011. While this technology will benefit users of Windows 7 and other modern operating systems, Windows XP users may actually be facing a performance hit by using the new drives.

This technology improvement, called Advanced Format Architecture (at least by Western Digital), is mandated by an agreement of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association, which says that by 2011 all hard drive makers must sell drives using 4 kilobyte sectors instead of 512 byte sectors, the current default.

Let’s break that overly technical explanation into something simpler: Most hard drives on the market now, from the lowly 80GB drives to the hulking 2 TB monsters, store their data in small blocks called sectors. Those sectors can store 512 bytes of data, but each sector also has a small gap between it – the space in each gap is used to correct errors and to store additional information that the drive needs to function properly.

Basically, the 4 kilobyte sector would require fewer gaps, total, across an entire hard drive, thus saving space on a hard drive platter and increasing the drive’s overall efficiency. The technology is best demonstrated by the image below:

Courtesy HotHardware.com

The extra space can be used to give the user more storage, or to allow the manufacturer to provide the same amount of storage on a smaller hard drive platter.

Most current operating systems, including Mac OS X versions 10.4 and above, most Linux distributions, Windows Vista and Windows 7, can take advantage of the benefits of the new technology, but the aging Windows XP will actually see visible slowdown in many cases.

This is due to an emulation technique used by the new drives that allows legacy operating systems, such as Windows XP, to treat them like older 512 byte sector drives. The performance hit is expected to be about ten percent.

One reason why some users cling to Windows XP is because of its speed, but along with reports that multi-core and hyperthreaded processors offer better performance in Windows 7, this new hard drive format serves as another bullet point in the list of reasons to abandon the aging operating system.

The upside is that by 2011, Windows XP should be on its way out, and many of its remaining users will be running it on older computers instead of brand-new machines using the new hard drive technology. It’s possible that, despite the potential for lesser performance, many casual computer users won’t even notice the change.

Sources: HotHardware, DailyTech

New Hard Drive Technology Boosts Windows 7, Slows XP was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Last week was a good week for news.  We had the stunning revelation of the Windows Phone 7 operating system and the revelation of the ballot screens for both Windows (all current versions) and Office 2010.  But there was also another story doing the rounds about memory usage in Windows 7.

I didn’t comment on this story as I knew that Windows was not “maxing out memory at 86%” and slowing performance but rather was doing what it had been designed to do, cache the programs you run the most to increase performance instead, while making that memory free at any time should you need it for something else.

Robert B wrote this up for us here, highlighting this important point and setting the facts straight shortly after the story first broke.

This whole sad episode, which began on IDG News has been written up by technology journalist Paul Thurrott here.  This does raise an important point about what we write and who we’re writing it for.

The type of people who read technology news websites, such as Windows 7 News, can be assumed to be technology buffs and enthusiasts right?  Wrong.  The nature of the internet means that all of what you write is there available to everybody all of the time.

Lets take the Windows Browser Ballot screen as an example.  This will affect up to 1 billion people across Europe, the vast majority of who will be completely non-technical.  It’ll appear unexpectedly and without a proper explanation of what’s happening and why.  A great many of those people, hundreds of thousands, will want to know more about it and so at some point will do an internet search.  That’s where the tech news sites come in, and that’s why we write a lot of the stuff we do in the way we present it.

Anybody can do news and anybody can do comment, but checking the veracity of those news stories, and making sure the news and articles are as accessible as possible to the widest audience, remember Windows is used by over 3 billion people worldwide, always has to be at the foremost of our minds.

Last week I received a comment about one of the articles I had written, on the subject of the Office 2010 file-format ballot screen that simply said…

This site used to be about news…
Now it looks like editors personal blogs…
We don’t care what you think. We want facts, not opinions!

It’s important that news and articles are backed up with opinion, reasons and background to contextualise them for the reading masses.  A great many people will not know what the repercussions of something for them personally will be, and as such look to journalists and experts to help put things into a more personal context for them.  This also helps to make sure that anyone who picks up news stories we break here on Windows7News know that we’ve checked the facts of a story before we publish it, helping to prevent things like the recent memory usage debacle.

So continue with Windows7News, we’ll always bring you the best and most relevant news, opinions and features and as for the rest…  You can check their facts back here 

Veracity, Open-mindedness and 3 billion people was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

First screenshots of the post-rtm build 7700 have been published by the Russian news site Wzor. The full build string of the client version is 7700.0.100122-1900 which indicates that it was compiled on January 22.

A server version is also available with that build number. This build should not be confused with the builds for the first service pack of Windows 7 as this build will eventually lead to Windows 8 while the service pack builds will lead to the release of the Windows 7 Service Pack.

[Show as slideshow]

12►

Windows 7 Build 7700 Screenshots was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

About a month ago, prominent blogger Rafael Rivera revealed that Microsoft had used open-source code in the download tool it was offering so that users could transfer Windows 7 .ISO files to USB flash drives (see our coverage here). There’s nothing wrong with using open-source code, of course, but you have to use it in accordance with the license under which it is released – in this case, Microsoft violated the GPLv2-licensed code developed for a program called ImageMaster.

Today, Microsoft has righted its wrongs and offered the tool for download, this time licensed properly under the terms of the GNU GPLv2.

The tool, originally a standalone program, now requires additional downloads to work – the .NET Framework and IMAPI – which the program will download for you if they’re not already installed on your computer.

Microsoft’s Peter Galli said the following in a blog post:

I am very pleased to announce that Microsoft today released the Open Sourced Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) under the GPLv2.

As we previously explained, the testing and localization took longer than we expected, but the project is now hosted on CodePlex.com, Microsoft’s Open Source software project hosting repository, and the code can be found here.

The tool can also now be downloaded from the Microsoft Store here.

Also, as a result of some necessary changes, while the user experience of the tool will be the same as before, the install involves additional steps.

Once again, we appreciate your patience.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 Download Tool Re-Posted was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Copies of the Windows 7 Family Pack, which includes three upgrade licenses for Windows 7 Home Premium, are becoming harder to find in the United States, both in retail stores and online. The offer, announced by Microsoft in July and offered for $150, was said to be “while supplies last,” but I don’t think anyone was expecting supplies to run so low so soon.

Microsoft issued a brief statement about the shortage of copies:

“The Windows 7 Family Pack was introduced as a limited time offer while supplies last in select geographies… Response has been very positive and in some cases, the offer has sold out. “

This is bad for consumers, especially as the holiday season approaches in the midst of the recession – late shoppers may find themselves out of luck if they attempt to purchase the Family Pack as a gift.

It’s also bad in a general sense, as it eliminates the most reasonably-priced Windows 7 upgrade from Microsoft’s product lineup. I know that business is business and you have to do what’s best for the bottom line, but this leaves the cheapest Windows 7 upgrade option sitting at $119 for an upgrade pack of Windows 7 Home Premium. OEM copies of the OS are slightly cheaper, sitting around $100, but that’s still twice as expensive as a Family Pack license and not technically legal for individuals, besides. All of a sudden, Windows 7 is a slightly harder sell – not something Microsoft needs.

Microsoft has said in the past that it might make the Family Pack a more permanent offering depending on consumer response, but they’ve said nothing to indicate that they plan on replenishing supplies. Tell us how you feel about this situation in the comments section!

Windows 7 Family Pack Supplies Running Low was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

He wants you... to move to Windows 7

We all want our governments to be more efficient, right? Many United States government offices have plans to do this by moving to Windows 7 within six to twelve months, though some need to jump significant security hurdles first.

A Dell survey of 205 government IT shops found that about 50% of those surveyed had plans to move in a year or less, with another 37% saying that they’d like to make the move in a year or more – most cited new features and functionality as the reason to upgrade. Many are also planning to coordinate the rollout of Windows 7 with the retirement of older Windows XP machines.

By comparison, a July survey of private businesses found that only about a third of enterprises were planning on rolling out Windows 7 within a year of release.

The U.S. government adoption rate, then, looks to be significantly higher. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Teresa Carlson points to the University of New Mexico, the State of Illinois, and the City of Miami in particular as early adopters of the OS.

However, before some agencies can deploy the new OS, a number of security settings need to be reviewed – the Federal Desktop Core Configuration is a list of hundreds of Windows settings that must be tested and approved before OS rollouts can begin. The purpose of the FDCC list is to make PCs more secure and less prone to hacking and malware infection – lists already exist for Windows XP and Windows Vista, but finalizing the Windows 7 list “will take until spring 2010, at least,” according to FDCC program manager Ken Page.

Once the Windows 7 FDCC is finished, government agencies can begin moving on to Microsoft’s latest and greatest – the U.S. Air Force, which just completed its rollout of Windows Vista this past summer, plans to upgrade more than half a million PCs to the new OS.

This is one area of government where your politics don’t matter – if you’re here, it’s safe to say that you want everyone to be using Windows 7, no matter which side of the aisle you’re on.

The U.S. Government and Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

A recent survey run by consumer electronics site Retrevo suggests that consumers may be shying away from netbooks running Windows 7 Starter Edition, the lowliest of the many editions on Windows 7′s totem pole.

Retrevo’s survey asked 1,100 “users” if they were planning to buy a netbook this year. Of the 21% who responded “yes” a little over half said that they would be “unsatisfied” with a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, based on lack of features such as “Multi-monitor Support, Desktop Personalization, DVD Playback” and others.

First, I’ll point out why this survey might not be as big a deal as the Internet news mill is making it out to be: Most significantly, this survey is pretty unscientific, identifying the participants only as Retrevo.com “users” with no other data given about the sample or the margin of error. I contacted Retrevo for comment about this and will update you if I get a response.

It should also be said that DVD playback is not included in Windows XP without the use of third-party codecs, which I assume can just as easily be added to Windows 7 Starter.

Having leveled those criticisms, their main point stands – Windows 7 Starter Edition is just a little too neutered, not including Aero or something as simple as the ability to change the desktop wallpaper. I don’t think that Microsoft is trying to kill the netbook market, as the Retrevo piece suggests, but I do think that Microsoft is trying to have its cake and eat it too – offering a low-priced cut-rate edition of Windows to maintain its dominance over Linux in the netbook market, but removing just enough significant features that a large percentage of users will be tempted to cough up the $80 that it costs to do an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments section.

Netbook Users Unhappy with Windows 7 Starter? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Windows 7 is  finally here!

We’ve been tracking the development of Windows 7 for exactly 32 months since 22nd February 2007 and Windows 7 will be finally be available to buy around the globe today.  We will continue to bring you news on Windows 7 as well as tips, guides and Windows 7 Help as well as Windows 8 News on our sister site.  We believe that it will be Microsoft’s finest OS to date and I’m sure that many of you will agree!

Some lucky UK punters received their copy of Windows 7 early in the post this week, but Spiros Giokaris was the first person in the world to legally buy a copy of Windows 7 from a store.  Spiros Giokaris’ name was chosen at random by the Sydney Harvey Norman store at midnight to buy his copy of Windows 7.

“I can’t wait to go home to try it out — I’m excited,” he told ninemsn.

“From what I’ve read and heard, it’s going to make your internet experience or your computing experience a lot easier.”

“This is going to bring a lot of people back — from what I’ve heard and what I’ve read, Windows 7 definitely the way to go,” he said.

“I’m actually looking forwards to the widgets, setting up widgets and better gaming and better surfing, it should be fun.”

Don’t forget you can send your Windows 7 launch day photos to photos@everything-microsoft.com or chat live throughout the day with other readers.  If (some of you will) you have problems using Windows 7, remember Windows 7 Help is available.

Congratulations Spiros Giokaris – First Man To Legally Buy Windows 7! was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

To celebrate the launch of Windows 8 News we’ve decided to run another competition! We need two logos, one for Windows 7 News and one for Windows 8 News, that will look amazing in the header and also as a thumbnail image. The competition offers any budding designers not only an opportunity to win $200, but to also display their talents to a large base of users, as all entries will be displayed on the site because readers will choose the best logo and the winner.

Rules:

1. No limit to the number of entries
2. Entries to be submitted via logomyway
3. Thumbnail logo must be 120×120
4. Main logo must be no bigger than 250 x105
5. Must work on white background
6. Decision of the editors will be final

If you’re not a designer, then don’t forget you’ve still got a week to enter our competition to win a funky $200 beanbag.

Design A New Logo For Windows 8 News And Win $200 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Want to see your posts on Windows 7 News and in front of nearly 1 million readers per month?  Then drop us a line as we are looking to add additional writers to the editorial team.  Not only will you become an important part of a vibrant and rapidly growing site, but you will also get paid for your posts!

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Be interested in Windows 7 and Microsoft operating systems in general
• Read all the news about Windows 7 as soon as they come out
• Write interesting and compelling articles
• We are particularly interested in editors who can write ‘how to’ and modding guides
• Have proven writing experience

We’ll take applicants from anywhere, but US-based writers are preferred.

Interested?  Then send an email to jointheteam@everything-microsoft.com with samples of your work, preferably about Windows 7 (or another Microsoft OS).

Write For Windows 7 News was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The guys over at Wzor have posted information about a Windows 7 SP1 build 7227 leak which is already beginning to appear on various P2P networks on the Internet. Only a 32-bit client seems to have leaked so far. Here are the details according to Wzor in case you have intentions to download it:

FILE: 7227.0.x86fre.winmain_sp.090602-2110.client_en-us.ultimate.vhd
(the original VHD in packed RAR archive, size RAR file: 2,005,278,460 byte
SHA1: 3FFE342C8A9FD2CDF0AF937D2A25BCA640C4010B)
SIZE: 5,584,065,536 byte
CRC: 616985FA
MD5: F98F78D86940761D8909023A00C75704
SHA1: 082F189EE4F58393D3CB113B0F46EC0E1EE41BD8

Three screenshots have been posted along with the leak information on their website.

[Show as slideshow]

According to one of the uploaders the following changes have been made to build 7227

1. Changes in the mechanism for displaying thumbnails in the taskbar.

2. Pop-Up lists for the panel

3. Pop-Up lists for Remote Desktop

4. Applying the settings of the taskbar

5. Multitouch zoom

6. Invert selection

7. You can search for music by artist

8. View the contents of the search results

9. Intelligent indexing after installation

10. Reducing the length of playback sounds system

11. Changes in the panel Devices and Printers

12. Changes in the mechanism of extraction devices

13. Support for FireWire-cameras

14. Reduction in section in system

15. Improved driver support

16. Reducing the paging file

17. Assigning a letter to boot with two OS loaded

18. Naming the section reserved for the system.

There are rumors out there that this build could be fake and that build 7230 will be leaked tomorrow evening.

Wzor did post additional news about the RTM of Windows 7. It is an automatic translation of the Russian text that has been posted on the Wzor site:

Today at breakfast, Steve Balmer (Steve Ballmer) has told us that because of Steve Dzhobsa (Steve Jobs) with a “snow leopard” (Snow Leopard), about which he informed him yesterday, had to adjust their plans and that, prior to final assembly RTM release is now nothing left to do all that is three steps.
Step one: from 10 to 15 June will be the last public build is available for corporate partners Microsoft, this “public” assembly will be assembled:
6.1.7229.0.winmain.090604-1901. Since then and up until the final RTM release is no domestic partnership, or the assembly will not be available.
* (We are talking about formal access assemblies and can escape anything in the network, even the latest current build: 6.1.7230.0.winmain.090605-1900 – and this assembly may be RTM Escrow assembly).
Step Two: just since mid-June will be collected in the assembly – the candidates for the final RTM release, none of these assemblies will not be distributed to partners.
Step three: final RTM release of Windows 7 will be collected until the day of the summer solstice that is, until 21 June! In Microsoft realize that the case should be initiated prior to finish it before this mysterious date!
Since June 19, you may receive the RTM release of Windows 7 and the Internet.
Finish?: Since the assembly in the RTM release of Microsoft will be a closed test release before signing (sign-off), before the end of these procedures, no one can argue what will become an official build, the final RTM release of Windows 7.
The forthcoming assembly RTM build is not suggested that it would immediately appear on CONNECT’e or the subscribers to MSDN.
Be careful with this point a mass of false information about the final release. We will promptly inform you!
The eyes and Co.

source wzor

Windows 7 SP1 7227 Leak was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The Windows 7 News Roundup is a new weekly column that looks back at last week’s stories that have been published on other popular Windows 7 websites. This gives users who are interested in Windows 7 a quick overview of the most important topics and news that have surfaced in the past seven days. This is an excellent way of keeping up to date without spending to much time looking for news yourself.

Official Microsoft News

Introducing the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 [Windows Team Blog] – Official announcement of the touch pack for windows 7.

Let’s talk about Windows 7 Starter [Windows Team Blog] – Microsoft announces the removal of the three application limit in Windows 7 Starter.

Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls [Engineering Windows 7] – An overlook of the safeguarding features that Microsoft has implemented in Windows 7.

Windows 7 Partner Video Contest [link] – Your opportunity to win some prices by creating and submitting a video about your Windows 7 experience.

Third Party News

Maximum Hardware Specifications For Small Notebook PCs [Tech ARP] – The site is listing the hardware restrictions of several Windows 7 editions.

Side by side: UI changes from Windows 7 beta to Windows 7 RC [Ars Technica] – An in depth comparison of the user interfaces of Windows 7 Beta and RC.

Windows 7 Touch Pack [SuperSite Blog, Within Windows, Ed Bott] – Reviews and news of the touch pack for Windows 7.

Windows 7 Entertainment Center [UX Evangelist] – Stephen Chapman posted a picture of a Windows 7-branded MCE entertainment device.

Windows 7 Upgrade News [APC Mag, Winfuture (German)] – Free Windows Vista to Windows 7 upgrade program is expected to start June, 26.

Windows 7 News Roundup was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Two videos showing the Windows 7 RC 2 were posted to Youtube earlier this day. According to Stephen they are supposed to be recordings of a Microsoft employee at Computex in Taiwan. The information that can be extracted from the videos are the alleged build string of the Windows 7 Release Candidate 2 build and a new wallpaper image.

The build string 7224.0.amd64fre.winmain.090528-1309 which means that it has been compiled on May 28. The second video contains a German voice telling someone that they are looking for their seats and have to walk through the plane to get there. Then something about masks which is not recognizable.

The guys at iHackintosh have additional information which suggests that Microsoft Windows 7 Build 7200 will be distributed on June 11 to TAP and OEM customers and that some assume that the second release candidate will also be the RTM build. They expect a leaked version soon.

Update:

Videos seem to be fake as they are using wallpapers and icons that are freely available on the Internet.

Windows 7 RC 2 Videos Appear was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

We have seen some leaks originating in China before. Most of them were about distributing a new Windows 7 build to various P2P network. It seems that the leaks go further this time with Microsoft China not shy to make use of the official Windows 7 logo before its official announcement. The guys at Redmond Pie published several photos from a Microsoft sponsored event on Windows 7 RC held in China.

[Show as slideshow]

123►

The Microsoft Chine homepage is also the page that is displaying the very same logo while the other websites still display no logo or a general Windows logo instead. What do you think of the new logo?

Microsoft China Leaks Offical Windows 7 Logo was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Paul Thurrott who operates the Win Supersite has recently posted an article on his site about the latest 7106 build of Windows 7. In it he mentioned the rumor that a new UI – user interface – could be introduced by Microsoft in an upcoming RTM build.

There are rumors, too, that a new UI is coming and it may make sense for Microsoft to hold on to that UI for the RTM builds, so that it has one last surprise to offer up to its eager fans. Indeed, the smartest thing Microsoft has done with Windows 7, in many ways, is keep the drama high by playing things close to the vest. That said, our first RTM-level build, build 7106, doesn’t really offer anything in the way of revelation. (A newer build, 7107, has also leaked recently, and we can expect more to come in the days ahead.)

Paul clearly states that this is a rumor and that the 7106 build “doesn’t really offer anything in the way of revelation”. Others like Ed Bott have voiced their opinion calling this rumor nonsense.

When the Windows 7 RC does appear, I predict that it will look exactly like the builds that have been floating around for the last two weeks. New desktop backgrounds, sure. Major (or even minor) changes to the UI? No way.

His stance is reflected by user comments on various other sites. The majority thinks that Microsoft will not release a new user interface. There might be changes to the theme, probably even a new default theme, new backgrounds and objects like that but certainly not a new interface.

Users who mentioned that a new UI might be true relied heavily on a speech held by Microsoft’s OEM manager Laurence Painell who mentioned that some major announcements would be revealed soon.

Rumors Of A New Windows 7 UI was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

We have reported about the groundbreaking change in the Windows 7 release candidate that allowed users to uninstall Internet Explorer. While uninstallation was probably the wrong choice of words as it merely meant that the executable of Internet Explorer would be removed from the operating system it did prepare users for things to come. In an article published today at the Windows Engineering blog it became known that additional features of Windows 7 can be turned off by the user.

The release candidate for Windows 7 offers an extended Windows Features control panel which can be accessed from the Programs and Features menu. New features have been added to that control panel that can be removed from the computer system including media features like Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player or Windows DVD Maker, the indexing service, Windows Search or the Microsoft .net Framework 3.51.

Deselecting a feature has the following consequences:

If a feature is deselected, it is not available for use. This means the files (binaries and data) are not loaded by the operating system (for security-conscious customers) and not available to users on the computer. These same files are staged so that the features can easily be added back to the running OS without additional media. This staging is important feedback we have received from customers who definitely do not like to dig up the installation DVD.

This is a very interesting move by Microsoft that should please advanced users who usually rely on third party software instead of Microsoft programs.

Even More Features Can Be Turned Off In Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

First reports are in that another Windows 7 build has been leaked to the Internet. After magazines like Winfuture posting screenshots of Windows 7 build 7048 yesterday first reports have emerged that this build is available on various Bittorrent sites on the Internet. The complete build string of the release is 7048.0.winmain.090219-1845 indicating that it was compiled on February 19, 2009 at 18:45. It is surprising that this build got leaked as it only got distributed to internal testers and several Microsoft partners who participate in the Technology Adopters Program.

Windows 7 build 7048 is supposed to be distributed to beta testers on the Connect portal later this month according to the article at Winfuture.

Windows 7 Build 7048 Leaked was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft is holding the event TechNet and MSDN Unleashed: Windows Vista to Windows 7 on February 28 7:45 AM Pacific Time. Everyone can register to participate in the event online although it is aimed at IT professionals and developers in first place:

This event is taking place live in the Irvine, CA office. For those who cannot attend in person, we are also simulcasting via Live Meeting. We will be utilizing 2-Way Audio directly from Live Meeting so you shouldn’t need to dial into a conference bridge. The Live Meeting link will be sent with your registration confirmation.

Interesting from a Windows 7 standpoint of view are the two sessions that provide an in depth coverage of the new operating system:

Welcome to Windows 7

This session will be an overview of the GUI and Feature improvements in Windows 7. This will include

• Task Bar/System Tray Improvements
• Aero Features
• System Improvements
• Control Panels and Features
• Desktop Improvements
• IE 8
• Under The Hood

Windows 7 Deep Dive

Deep Dive One and Two will dig into Windows 7 and the new or redesigned under the hood features in the product. The topics covered will be:

• Microsoft’s understanding of the needs of IT Pros when designing Windows 7
• Hardware Readiness
• Improved Applications
• Application Compatibility
• AIK
• VHD Images and Imaging
• DISM
• Dynamic Driver Provisioning
• Multicast Multiple Stream Transfer
• Streamlined Installation and File Migration
• USMT
• DHCP Hint
• Enterprise Application Compatibility
• Windows Troubleshooting Platform

Just click here to register for the event. A Windows Live Id is required.

TechNet and MSDN Unleashed: Windows Vista to Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft has responded to the recent criticism of the way UAC is implemented in Windows 7. The so called Windows 7 UAC flaw which was discovered by several security experts in the past days referred to the possibility of changing the UAC level of the Windows 7 operating system without the need for user interaction.

Microsoft’s response to the criticism is the following:

Recapping the discussion so far, we know that the recent feedback does not represent a security vulnerability because malicious software would already need to be running on the system. We know that Windows 7 and IE8 together provide improved protection for users to prevent malware from making it onto their machines. We know that the feedback does not apply to the “Always Notify” setting of UAC; and we know that UAC is not 100% effective at stopping malware once it is running. One might ask, why does the “Notify me only when…” setting exist, and why is it the default?

While it is definitely true that malware has to be running to change or even disable UAC on a Windows 7 it would probably please all parties involved in the discussion if the user would be notified whenever the UAC setting is changed on the Windows 7 system. This would ensure that no software could manipulate the User Account Control without the user’s consent. The best way of implementation would be to make this an optional setting in the UAC controls that could be turned off by users who would not need it.

Microsoft’s Response To Windows 7 UAC Criticism was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft will be offering upgrades for existing Windows XP users who want to purchase Windows 7 according to an article posted earlier today on the Computerbase website. Upgrade meaning the possibilities to purchase Windows 7 at a reduced price. It seems however necessary to install Windows 7 on its own without the possibility to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 directly.

This means that it will only be possible to install Windows 7 doing a clean install on the computer system. Offering the upgrade for Windows XP users is another interesting move by Microsoft to convince Windows XP users that an upgrade of their operating system to Windows 7 would not be that bad.

What’s your take on the story? Are you an XP user tempted by the offer? What price would you be willing to pay for the upgrade?

Windows XP To Windows 7 Upgrade Confirmed was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The release of the public beta of Windows 7 has had a huge impact on the market share of the upcoming operating system. The market share climbed from 0.01% in December 08 to 0.10% in January 09 according to the market share monitoring company Net Applications. The beta was released on January 9 with distribution problems on the first few days which got sorted out later.

The 0.1% market share puts Windows 7 in front of operating systems like Windows NT, Symbian, Windows CE or Android which all got a lower market share according to Net Applications. It should however be noted that the company is monitoring websites and calculates the market share based on the values that are submitted in the headers during the connection. This explains the rather low market shares of the mobile operating systems.

The next operating systems in sight are Windows ME, Mac OS and Windows 98. The most popular opearting systems according to this study are Windows XP with more than 63% market share, Windows Vista with 22.48% and Mac OS X 10.5 with 5.28%.

Windows 7 Market Share Climbing was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The User Account Control security feature has been changed quite a bit in Windows 7 to make it “less annoying” than it was in Windows Vista. Many users were that annoyed by the UAC in Windows Vista that they completely disabled that feature effectively eliminating the security benefits but getting rid of the annoyance.

Windows 7 has changed the User Account Control function quite a bit. UAC can now distinguish between third party software access and access from the Windows system. Windows 7 distinguishes between third party and system applications by checking for security certificates. If the process or application has a specific certificate it will not cause an UAC prompt to show up when the user or a process is changing system settings.

Several websites (IStartedSomething) mentioned a problem with the way UAC was implemented by default in Windows 7. It basically came down to the possibility to turn off UAC completely without user interaction. Long Zheng posted a proof of concept script on the website which turns off UAC in Windows 7 by running a series of keyboard shortcuts that are invisible to the user.

The problem here is that Windows 7 identifies changes to the User Account Control as a certified process which by design does not display an UAC prompt. This means it is possible to change the User Account Control level without user interaction including the possibility to completely disable UAC.

Windows 7 UAC Security Flaw was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Windows 7 introduces several new keyboard shortcuts that come in handy when managing open windows in the operating system. Most Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts mimic the behavior when dragging and dropping windows in the new operating system. Here is the list in case you like to use the keyboard instead of the mouse.

[Windows Up] – Maximize window
[Windows Down] – Minimize windows / Restore
[Windows Left] – Dock window to the left side
[Windows Right] – Dock window to the right side
[Windows Shift Up] – Maximize vertical size of window
[Windows Shift Down] – Restore vertical size
[Windows Shift Left] – Move window to left monitor
[Windows Shift Right] – Move window to right monitor

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts For Managing Windows was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets by Tim Sneath is a collection of tips and tricks about Windows 7 that are generally considered unknown or secret to the Windows 7 Beta users.

It contains tips like the following ones:

If you’ve already got an application open on your desktop (for example, a command prompt window), and you want to open a second instance of the same application, you don’t have to go back to the start menu. You can simply hold down the Shift key while clicking on the taskbar icon, and it will open a new instance of the application rather than switching to the existing application. For a keyboard-free shortcut, you can middle-click with the third mouse button to do the same thing. (This trick assumes that your application supports multiple running instances, naturally.)

If you’re always working in the same four or five folders, you can quickly pin them with the Explorer icon on the taskbar. Hold the right-click button down and drag the folder to the taskbar, and it will be automatically pinned in the Explorer Jump List.

A great read with 30 Windows 7 secrets that can increase productivity by a large margin.

Windows 7 Secrets was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Many users are reporting about problems they have with the downloads of the iso images of Windows 7 Beta. Some give up and use P2P networks to download the beta of Windows 7 as this seems to be the more reliable – but legally questionable – way of downloading the operating system.

The direct download links to the iso images at Microsoft tend to timeout every now and then which means that they are not the most reliable way of downloading the iso images.

More reliable than that is to open the direct links to the official Windows 7 Downloader in Internet Explorer.

Windows 7 32-bit Download Link

Windows 7 64-bit Download Link

Just copy the two links into Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer will display a dialog to install a new software component. Do that and the download of Windows 7 should begin immediately.

Best Way To Download The Windows 7 Beta was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The Windows 7 taskbar has seen a major overhaul. It looks and behaves different than the taskbars on previous versions of the Windows operating system. One of those changes is the icon only display in the Windows 7 taskbar.

All open programs will be shown with their icons only. Some users might prefer the old way of displaying items in the Windows taskbar instead.

It is actually possible to change the display of the Windows 7 Taskbar items so that they display both icons and text instead.

To do that right-click empty space in the Windows 7 Taskbar and select Properties from the options. Locate the Taskbar Buttons entry and change the dropdown menu on the right from Always Combine, hide labels to Never Combine and press OK to apply the changes.

From then on icons and text will be displayed in the Windows 7 Taskbar.

Display Icons And Text In The Windows 7 Taskbar was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft has decided to lift the 2.5 million user limit they initially planned as a response to the release chaos on January 9. The announcement was posted yesterday on the The Windows Blog:

I know many of you have had issues with the Windows 7 Beta site over the last 24 hours. As you may have noticed the download site has been up and running smoothly since this morning. That said, we apologize for the inconvenience that it caused some of you.

Due to an enormous surge in demand, the download experience was not ideal so we listened and took the necessary steps to ensure a good experience. We have clearly heard that many of you want to check out the Windows 7 Beta and, as a result, we have decided remove the initial 2.5 million limit on the public beta for the next two weeks (thru January 24th). During that time you will have access to the beta even if the download number exceeds the 2.5 million unit limit.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, interest and willingness to beta test. It has been great to see the positive early reviews and feedback. As you know, this is a beta product. We are working hard to get Windows 7 ready and right. Your input is a critical part of that process. Thank you!

This means that everyone will be able to download the Windows 7 Beta and receive a product key in the process if he does so before January 24.

Interested users can head over to the download page where they can apply for a key and download the Windows 7 Beta.

Microsoft Lifts Windows 7 Beta Download Limit was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Yesterday was a very busy day for Microsoft. The first official download links for Windows 7 Beta releases started to appear on the Chinese Technet website. Some users, like Riso from the Windows 7 forum, managed to get their holds on the beta. They did receive the beta key and the ISO download. Others who got there minutes afterwards noticed that the site was serving pages slowly and that errors started to occur regularly. Many were able to fill out the form on the first page but got an error message when the download link and product key of Windows 7 were supposed to appear.

Other Microsoft websites began to include the link to the beta download of Windows 7 on their websites but it soon became obvious that all Microsoft servers were crumbling under the heavy load. Later that day the direct download links became known and users started to download the official releases but they still did not receive the keys.

Some users managed to grab a Windows 7 Beta key later that day but most did not succeed but were greeted with the following error message:

Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal — we’re in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We’re sorry for the delay and we’ll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.

Windows 7 Beta Release Postponed was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

If you have missed yesterday’s CES 2009 keynote by Steve Ballmer you can now watch the full keynote as a recording here at Windows 7 News.

View Steve Ballmers CES 2009 Keynote was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

It is probably fair to say that the Windows 7 builds that have been floating around on the Internet are very stable and that only a handful of minor errors have been reported yet. According to Neowin the latest two builds of Windows 7 that leaked to the Internet may damage mp3 files under certain circumstances.

The problem was first recognized by users who noticed that the first few seconds of their mp3 files had been cut off. Some thought it was related to bad crossfading first but it soon turned out that the data was not there anymore. Many users thought it was caused by Windows Media Player 12 but it turned out to be a global problem.

It does however only happen under the following circumstances: The first few seconds of a mp3 file will be cut in Windows 7 if the header of the mp3 file is larger than 16 Kilobytes and if meta data is written to the file. Some media players are able to automatically add missing meta data which is the most likely cause.

The changes are irreversible and it is advised to backup the mp3 collection before using them in the current builds of Windows 7. A Microsoft employee has confirmed the bug in the forum. According to his statement Microsoft is working on a hotfix for the problem.

According to him the public beta which will be released in early January will not be affected by the problem.

Windows 7 Beta Damages Some MP3 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The Windows 7 News team wishes all of its visitors a wonderful New Years Eve and a successful productive 2009. The new year will be exciting as we will see the first official public beta release of Windows 7 and most likely the final release of the operating system. The new year will start with the release of the Windows 7 which can be downloaded and tested by all users. That’s actually the first public release of Windows 7 and it will be interesting to see how the general public will accept the new operating system.

Have a great day and see you in 2009!

Happy New Year was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The usual suspects have gotten their hands on the beta release of Windows 7 and are posting all kinds of news related to it. Today’s news roundup starts with Ed Bott’s analysis of the Windows 7 EULA. The main points that he discovered in the EULA are that users can install the Windows 7 Beta on as many computer systems as they like, that they should not use it in a production environment, that it will expire on August 1, 2009, that some privacy related features are turned on by default whereas they will be turned off in the retail version and that it is not allowed to benchmark the system. Not a lot of new information in here although the summer expiration date lead to new assumptions about the final release date of Windows 7.

Paul Thurott posted his beta news and observations about Windows 7 which contains a detailed look at the taskbar display settings, start menu and tray popup inconsistencies and some stability issues.

Next in line and last in this news roundup is Zack Whittaker with minor criticisms about Windows 7. He rants about the search in Windows 7 and application incompatibilities.

Windows 7 News Roundup was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Windows 7 offers an interesting new option when a software program becomes unresponsive. Windows 7 offers to try to cancel the non-responsive command of a process instead of just killing the process or offering to restart the application.

The user can continue working with the application if the cancellation of the non-responsive command is successful. This essentially means that the chance of loosing data is slim to none one a successful cancellation.

The success rate of this new method is not known currently but it did work quite well during tests. This is definitely the better – and safer – option than to simply kill the application or restart it. Both methods that have been used in previous Windows versions usually meant that some data would be lost in the process.

via Ithinkdiff

How Windows 7 Deals With Crashed Applications was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

German computer magazine WinFuture published a few Windows 7 Beta screenshots on their website which show no apparent changes when compared to the previous (leaked) builds like build Windows 7 build 6956 which was the build used by Microsoft at the WinHEC 2009 conference in Beijing.

It is very likely that Microsoft did concentrate on stability and driver support in the beta release to avoid bad news about incompatible drivers and system crashes. They also got their hands on a localized German edition of the Windows 7 beta and noted that Microsoft has not finished localizing the editions yet.

It is very likely that you will not notice many difference to the WinHEC build either when the Windows 7 beta will be officially released by Microsoft. Is the lack of “new” features bothering you? Let us know.

Windows 7 Beta News – 12/23/08 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

A screenshot of Windows 7 build 7004 appeared on the Internet. It was uploaded by Scott Wylie, NZ Director of Developer & Platform Strategy. He mentioned that he installed this pre-beta release of Windows 7 and started playing around with it. Now this interesting tidbit could either mean that the planned beta release will have a build number higher than 7004 or that Scott got it confused and was already working with a post-beta 1 build.

Windows 7 Build 7004 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

We have got some news about the public Windows 7 Beta that was expected to be released in early 2009. According to our sources the public beta will be made available on January 7. The full build string for the beta of Windows 7 will be 7000.0.081212-1400 which in other words means that the build 7000 will be the public beta. The beta will not only be available in English language but also in localized editions

That’s good news for everyone who wants to test the new operating system extensively. The final release of Windows 7 is expected to hit the shelves in November 2009.

Public Windows 7 Beta News was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

If you got your hands on a copy of Windows 7 (pre-beta or beta) you should have also received a Windows 7 product key with it to test the new operating system extensively. If you did install it without entering the product key you might have noticed by now that the operating system can only be tested for a period of 30 days before it requires registration.

There is however one simply command that can extend the trial period by another 30 days in case you need the extra time to find the key or to evaluate the Windows 7 operating system. To use it you need to load the command prompt in Windows 7 as an administrator and enter the following command:

sysprep /generalize

You can alternatively try the following two commands which should do the same:

slmgr.vbs –rearm
rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows

Reboot Windows 7 so that the changes can take effect. If everything worked out you should be able to test the Windows 7 operating system for another 30 days.

Extend Windows 7 Trial Period was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The first version of Windows 7 that leaked to various P2P networks was the released handed out at the Professional Developer Conference. The latest leak of build 6956 of Windows 7 happened during the WinHEC 2008 conference in Beijing. The release made its way on various torrent websites from where it can be downloaded. It is not supplied in ISO format but as a Virtual Hard Disk image. To run that image you would need one of the following programs: Virtual Server 2005, Hyer-V HyperVisor or Windows 7 Disk Management.

Another possibility that is outlined would be the following:

• extract HEC.rar, you can get a .VHD image.
• Use WinMount3, extract .VHD image to a new ntfs disk.
• Use VistaBootPro, add the disk to your boot menu.

Please note that those information have been directly taken from information supplied by people distributing those files. You already find blog articles that explain how to combine both leaked Windows 7 builds so that the newest build can be installed on every computer system.

Windows 7 Build 6956 Leaked was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft is currently holding another WinHec conference in China where it is showcasing the latest Windows 7 build 6956. Several Chinese tech sites have posted screenshots of the latest build. The latest build does not contain that many changes to previous builds. Most notably are the new Windows 7 start screen. The other notable change is an increase in the Windows Experience Index which is now ranging from 1.0 to 7.9.

There is also another screenshot that is showing a DirectX 11 booth.

Windows 7 Build 6956 Screenshots

[Show as slideshow]

Windows 7 Build 6956 Screenshots was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

After some uneventful days with barely any Windows 7 news the web is buzzing again. The latest news about Windows 7 was fueled by a blog post of Microsoft’s own Keith Combs who mentioned that attendees of one of the MSDN Developer Conferences will receive a Windows 7 Beta DVD. The MSDN Developer Conferences will take place in eleven US cities with three of the events in 2008 and the rest in 2009. Keith mentioned that attendees of the first three or so shows would most likely get the Windows 7 Beta DVD mailed when it is ready. The suggest data for that would be mid January.

German magazine WinFuture added another detail: Selected testers will receive the Windows 7 Beta in the second half of December which is exactly what we predicted in our updated Windows 7 release schedule.

Several Windows 7 news sites (here, here or here) are guessing that Microsoft will officially announce Windows 7 Beta at the Consumer Electronics Show 2009 at which Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer will be giving the pre-CES keynote address on January 7, 2009.

Windows 7 Beta News – 12/03/08 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft has released an update for Windows 7 pre-beta that resolves a problem that some testers discovered with external NTFS drives. The update improve the reliability and operation of an external NTFS drive according to Microsoft and can be downloaded from Windows Update. A reboot of the computer might be required after installation.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article is not mentioning the cause of the problem. This is the second update that has been released for a pre-beta build of Windows 7. The first update fixed a security vulnerability that affected all Windows operating systems.

Windows 7 External NTFS Drive Update was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Many Windows Vista users feel that Microsoft did release to many different editions of the operating system which made it harder for consumers to pick the right product. Even though not all editions were available to anyone it still meant that consumers had the choice among several Windows Vista editions from Windows Vista Basic to Windows Vista Ultimate.

Microsoft on the other hand does not seem to be bothered as much as the consumers are. German news mag Winfuture is reporting that Microsoft is considering to sell country specific editions of Windows 7 in order to make it easier for them to pick the right product. A customer from Germany or France would then buy Windows 7 editions that have been translated to his language. According to the magazine this is just one possible line of thought.

First reactions are quite negative though because it would increase the Windows 7 editions tremendously. The computer magazine is also reporting that Microsoft is having plans to rename some of the editions of Windows 7 to make it easier for consumers to distinguish between the editions. A strong rumor is the reintroduction of a professional edition of Windows 7.

Microsoft Considering Country Specific Editions Of Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The Microsoft Windows 7 development team has added many useful small changes to the upcoming operating system to increase productivity. We already mentioned the new Run As User option in the [right-click Shift] context menu. Another addition falling into the same category is the ability to launch a folder in its own process. Windows by default launches all folders in one process. The new entry to the right-click context menu displays a “Open In New Process” entry which will run the new folder in its own process instead.

The user has to press the shift key while right-clicking the folder in Windows Explorer for this option to become available.

Open In New Process Added To Context Menu was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft published a press release today in which they took a look at the reactions from developers and professionals that attended the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles last month. Although the majority of the press release addressed Windows Azure some passages referred to Windows 7.

About the reception of Windows 7..

Windows 7 received a similar reception – plenty of enthusiasm, and some caveats. Uniformly, developers like the new features round in Windows 7, as well as its speed. “Things like mounting virtual hard drives – we were just drooling over that,” says [attendee] Huckaby. Adds [attendee] Rigsby: “I installed the pre-beta (the third build, handed out at PDC) and was surprised at how stable it is. And it seems very, very fast. And I like a lot of the UI stuff, the multi-monitor support, and the DirectX improvements.”

Huckaby, for his part, was disappointed to see that some of the features on the Windows 7 beta did not match what had been demo’d during the second morning session. And there are concerns as to whether the final product will be all that has been promised. “When we saw Vista, no one wondered whether it would be a functional OS with great features,” says Hynds. “But what we found is that it wasn’t fast or stable enough. If Windows 7 is stable, then we should be in good shape.”

The second part does contain criticism which mainly centers around Microsoft’s decision to showcase a more advanced version than the one that was handed out to the attendees of the conference.

Microsoft: Developers making plans for Windows Azure, Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The new and improved calculator was one of the first new features of Windows 7 that came to light. Everyone thought that this was a much needed improvement to one of the basic utilities that shipped with almost any version of the Windows operating system since Windows 3.11. Windows Vista users might be delighted to hear that they too can run the Windows 7 Calculator as pointed out by a thread on the Windows Vista Club forum. All they need to do is head over to the forum thread and download the Windows 7 calculator that is linked there.

The 250 Kilobyte download of Windows-7-Calculator.rar should not take long. Unpack the contents to the computer’s hard drive. The calculator can then simply be started by double-clicking on calc.exe. Some users might even go so far and replace the original Windows Vista calculator with the one from Windows 7. It is recommended to first test the calculator by running calc.exe and to backup the original calculator before replacing it with the Windows 7 calculator.

The two files that should be backed up (if existing) are calc.exe in the system32 directory and calc.exe.mui in system32en-US. When that is done copy the files calc.exe and calc.exe.mui into the two folders overwriting any existing files in the process. The Windows 7 calculator should now be available by entering calc in the run dialog form or from the start menu as well.

Run Windows 7 Calculator In Windows Vista was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.